w. bush opened the door wide for a democrat to win. throughout american history, race has been a disqualifier even if favorable, political circumstances. not in 2008. overall, american voters did not -- this is meaningful if imperfect progress. in three days, we'll learn if america's first black president will be re-elected. the conditions are very different this time around. he is the incumbent, the economy is still limping and it may be harder generally to win reelection of our previous 42 presidents. only 16 were elected to two terms. if america doesn't choose president obama again, it is not an automatic indictment of our racial progress. if he wins, we can't smugly congratulate ourselves on our racial pro dpres. this is an election, not a group therapy session. no matter the outcome on tuesday, when we wake on wednesday morning, our country will be a place where being born black is a tremendous disadvantage compared with being born white. on wednesday we still have to grapple with e